Bryan Ritter, the brewer of Boiler Room Brewhaus Microbrewery, who along with wife, Barbara, run the establishment, lobbied for a change in local law, so they won’t have to have 30 percent of their profit in food sales at the microbrewery.
The question will be put to the public on November 6 in Bourbon County.
These are the comments Ritter made at the forum:
“As a business owner and a citizen of Bourbon County I’m here today to ask for your support and a yes vote in November,” he said. “By voting yes, you are voting in support of new business and new visitors to our great city and county.”
” My wife and I own and operate the new microbrewery in town, let me quickly tell you about two of our customers. Jim, who has been traveling to our area for many years, has always stayed in Nevada, once he heard that there was a microbrewery in Fort Scott he now stays at the Sleep Inn.”
“Another customer drove over a 100 miles just to visit our microbrewery,” Ritter told the candidate forum audience. “He suggested that for us to comply with the dated law we should sell a hot dog with every beer. ”
“Over 30% of the counties in Kansas have already done away with this dated law and with your support so will Bourbon County.”
” Let’s change the narrative from ‘here’s your hot dog that comes with a beer’ to ‘here’s your beer would you like a hotdog’? We make great craft beer and we don’t want to make food, your yes vote will help support us, Fort Scott and Bourbon County.”
We don’t need another bar!
I would tend to agree, but I visited it the other day and it is a very different environment than what I picture as a bar. Although the change to the laws seem like it might open up the possibility for more bars opening.
This is definitely not a “bar”. They specialize in craft beer and it is a wonderful relaxing environment where you can hang out and have a few beers with friends without the rowdy atmosphere of a “bar”. They do offer some food and snacks but forcing them to have 30% of their sales in food is just hard to do when most people just come out for a couple beers. They also cater in Papa Don’s Pizza but to my understanding this doesn’t count towards their food sales requirements.
I will vote yes!